'History of the Indian Navy. (1613-1863).' [‎563] (582/622)

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HISTORY OF THE INDIAN NAVY.
563
that they were u entitled to the like pay, pensions, allowances,
and privileges, and the like advantages as regards promotion
and otherwise, as if they had continued in the service of the
said Company " and yet the lieutenants received, some <£300,
and others £250 and ^200 a year; the mates, £150, £125 and
£100, according to length of service; and the midshipmen An experienced sailor, but not a commissioned officer. ,
c£80 and <£60.. With these pensions, but with blasted pros
pects, and no profession, these officers, many being married
men with families, were condemned to begin life anew, and, as
we know, in many cases, owing to inexperience in business
matters, they failed to earn a livelihood, or having capitalized
their pensions, lost every shilling. It is true that Government
offered these " commissioned" officers subordinate appointments
in the 44 uncovenanted" service, such as in the Master-iUtend-
ants' and Woods and Forests Departments, but they were
accepted in few Instances, because attaching to them, irre
spective of the retrogression in the social scale, was the utterly
unfair stipulation that the incumbents' pensions were to be
deducted from their pay during such time as they held these
appointments, so that a lieutenant who had served his country
twenty years was mulcted of his pension of c£300 a year,
receiving only the same pay as a newly joined civilian, his past
services being thus utterly ignored by the Government.
If it is said that the Captains could not be promoted to Rear-
Admirals, because flag rank was unknown in the Service,—
though we do not see any force in this argument, for an Order
in Council could, we opine, without violating any constitutional
principle, have created, say, Captains Frushard, Jenkins, and
Campbell, retired Real-Admirals:—but if we allow this was
not practicable, the same excuse cannot be advanced for the
treatment received by the Lieutenants. It was manifestly only
an act of justice, on compulsorily retiring these officers, to
give them a step in rank. It is a course that has invariably
been pursued in the other Naval and Military establishments of
Her Majesty. But the Indian Navy was to form the solitary
exception, and thus to the end the Government was resolved to
maintain the consistent course of contumely with which the
Service had been treated. Only the twenty-seven senior
Lieutenants were promoted to the rank of Commander, but
why the line was drawn at that number it would have puzzled
the officials who drew up the scheme to propound. To
instance the case of Lieutenant Sweny. This meritorious and
highly scientific officer had been eighteen years in the Indian
Navy, of which sixteen had been passed in active service; he
had been in independent charge of a survey, and during the
Persian War had gained the special thanks of his superiors
for the admirable manner in which he piloted the large fleet
the Shatt-ul-Arab, to the attack of the earthworks at
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